Tag Archives: whisk

I thought it was time for a classic. Although it could be considered a cooking building block. Mayonnaise is a foundation to so many things like Marie Rose and Tartar Sauce. Don’t worry, I’ll get to those soon It has to be good because it is enormously calorific! While it is so easy just to dollop some Hellmann’s onto things, it has nowhere near the depth of flavour you can expect from home made stuff.

Now in the interests of full disclosure, I have never made mayonnaise before so it was a sharp learning curve! I messed up the first go because I tried to cut down the quantity to one egg’s worth (I’m on a quest to lose weight and don’t want too much of the stuff kicking about). I now have a very tired forearm and a ramekin full for my troubles. I ordered a Kenwood stand mixer and I would imagine doing mayonnaise in one of those would be significantly less tedious! Unfortunately, I don’t know if I will be allowed to open it before Xmas…even if I paid for it.

Notes

It is worth putting the bowl on a wet tea towel because you have to go hands free when adding the oil and it becomes a pain as it starts to thicken.

A number of recipes I looked at seemed to disagree on when the vinegar went in, some said put all in half way, some said do it a drop at a time so I mixed the vinegar into the oil at half time and it worked well. It also keeps the thickness a bit more consistent.

Ingredients

To make a large ramekin full

2 Egg yolks

300ml of oil I found that olive oil overpowers it and turns it into the olive oil show so mixed 50/50 olive/rape.

1 teaspoon Mustard powder This is key to help the emulsification process and doesn’t really flavour it too heavily.

1 tablespoon of White wine vinegar Possibly a splash more to taste

A squeeze of lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

Put the egg yolks in a bowl with the mustard powder and a little salt and whisk until the eggs are well beaten.

Slowly start pouring the oil into the egg. There seem to be a lot of horror stories about this and some say a drop at a time, I would say I did a dash at a time and it seemed to work ok. Sorry, there were no photos here, my hands were full! you are looking to start feeling the mixture emulsifying (thickening) almost immediately after you start adding the oil.

Once you have about half of the oil in, mix the white wine vinegar into the oil and then start pouring in again – you can pick up the pace a bit but don’t go mad, maybe little splashes.

Now it is time to put a squeeze of lemon and grind of pepper and salt. and a last stir.

Now you can let your forearms relax

Given that mayonnaise is almost an ingredient, there will be a top 10 best uses coming up soon so get your suggestions in guys!